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Local musician Livy Jeanne gets an unexpected visit by Chloe Houle during her performance at École Our Lady of Perpetual Help school on Wednesday. Jeanne was at the school to tell students her story of how she overcame bullying.

Wednesday offered a homecoming of sorts for local recording artist Livy Jeanne, who spoke to École Our Lady of Perpetual Help school students about how to overcome being bullied.

Now in Grade 11, Jeanne was bullied from Grades 5 to 8 after she moved to Ardrossan.

"It was a tough couple of years of my life," she said. "It was mainly the girls that picked on me and I would go to school not really knowing if I would be in the doghouse with the group of girls or if they would talk to me, or if they liked me that day. It was very off and on. Very two-faced.

"I felt really alone and it got to the point where I was like, 'I don't want to go to school at all. I'd rather just stay home and do everything from home instead of go to school.' "

She added, "I was never mean to anyone. I tried to be friends with everyone and it didn't really work out for me that well."

It was during these years that Jeanne decided she would teach herself guitar from information she could find on the Internet.

Now, she is an up and coming recording artist, with her first full album, Under the Radar, on the way this spring. She has also won multiple awards in 2011, including International Female Vocal Artist of the Year, International Female Entertainer of the Year, International Songwriter of the Year and Co-Writer of the Year from North American Country Music Association International.

The album's first single, "Invisible," addresses the experience Jeanne had when she was being bullied, so with that song in mind, she has embarked on the You Don't Have to be Invisible school tour.

Currently, Jeanne has spoken with a handful of schools, but her hope is that she'll be able to speak to students nationwide.

Talking about her Sherwood Park appearance, she said, "I think it would definitely be harder to come into my own community and talk about it, but I'm so happy to be able to share it with my own community; people that do, or might know, who I am."

At OLPH, Jeanne mixed her message with related songs. She opened with discussing her experience being bullied and played the song "Watch me," which led into her talking about the importance of building self confidence and not letting bullies ruin their lives.

She also took questions from the students, which she said is her favourite part about this tour.

"We all have differences, but we all have to learn to embrace our differences and encourage everyone else to be different and embrace being unique. Basically, you don't have to be invisible," Jeanne said.

"I know when I was being bullied, school was my life. Those four walls were my life. (Once) I realized that I can make friends outside of school, everything changed."

Jeanne is also telling students who are bullied that it is possible to forgive their bullies in the future without forgetting. She herself has since forgiven one of her Ardrossan bullies.

She also encourages students to talk about their experiences being bullied.

"Talking about it is probably the main things that kids should do," she said. "It's scary. I didn't have the guts to do it, but I encourage other kids to have the guts to tell people because, like in anything in life, it's not going to get better before it gets worse. Everything is going to be way harder and it's going to be so scary until you fix it."

She added, "What I've learned from it has been huge. I have learned tons from the experience, even though it was such a negative thing. I have turned it into a positive by going and talking about my story and sharing my message and sharing my music and how I turned to music instead of turning to other options or doing what the other kids did and bully som,eone else to be cool. I turned to music to help me."

In the end, if her tour helps one person, it's worth it, she said, adding, "If I can make a difference in more than one (life); if I can make a difference in 100 people's lives, that is just - that's better than any award I can get.

"(The song) 'Invisible' really did do a lot for me. It helped me share my story of being bullied and how I got over it and how I changed a negative thing into a positive thing and now it's not only just helping me, it's helping others."

Anyone interested in contacting Jeanne can visit her website at www.livyjeanne.com.